We pulled the audit from the city Website for 2021 fiscal year and reviewed it. In this review we asked several questions around what we read. First there were a few "constructive suggestions" mentioned at the beginning by the accounting firm conducting the audit around financial handling of funds and budget reporting and execution. We are not here to throw rocks and attack, we are here to understand how our money is spent and how this process works. Many folks simply go on with their lives because they are extremely busy living, working, raising families, etc. We are here to shed light and try to explain the process as we learn it and share our findings. We have also spent time with city and county leaders learning and we are sharing our experiences and insight. Many of the leaders have been gracious with their time and have shared their thoughts and insight as well, and for that we are thankful.

The first item noted was the city left just over $565,000 in a bank account the was essentially left uninsured because it exceeded FDIC insurance levels. The auditor mentioned that the city must monitor its bank accounts and insure that all monies are secure and invested in a safe manner. This is investing 101. We are confident this has been corrected and we will review council notes to see if it was mentioned and dispositioned.

Next, and we feel this is quite significant, here is a quote from the audit; "the city exceeded its overall expenditure (expenses) budget by $5,689,801, due primarily to the unanticipated refunding of its series 2016 and series 2017 general obligation bonds. An accurate amended budget should have been submitted when it was known that expenditures were higher than originally anticipated."  We think the biggest concern here is the word unanticipated, we can understand wanting to refinance debt. The concern is why was this unanticipated? why was it not planned out? Its possible that these actions were done to correct decisions made by previous city leaders and there was a hit that had to be taken to improve the situation. But, why was the budget not revised to accurately reflect reality?

The third item was as followed: In the fiscal year ended 2021, total expenditures in the sewer fund and the landfill fund exceeded total revenues by $137,281 and $194,868 respectively." put simply, these two departments suffered big losses. It was recommended, "that management analyze receipts, disbursements, transfers, and operating efficiency to ensure that the operations are cost effective and financially feasible". Its imperative that these basic departments function as close to budget neutral as possible in our opinion. Having these spiral out of control would not be good for the city from a fiscal perspective, it would only add to an increase tax burden or a reduction in services.

After reading through we had more questions than answers. Is this amount of deficit an acceptable level for a city our size? Are these loses indicative of bad policy or is this happening in other areas and cities due to the current business climate? We know taxes are a necessary evil and that government is messy when providing services, but are we holding our elected leaders and bureaucrats accountable? Are WE doing our Due Diligence? We bring this information forward and hope you do your own research and help hold leaders accountable, so Sidney doesn't continue to die slowly.